SCIENCE FIELD TRIP/BIRTHDAY OUTING

For William's 8th birthday, he chose a trip to the Pittsburgh Aquarium as his special activity. It was among the list of options given to him for a couple of reasons. We are studying swimming creatures this year for science. We also have free entrance to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium for this year.

Science is by far the boys' favorite subject. It's not really like school for them. I think it has a lot to do with the great curriculum we've found. This is wonderful read-aloud that is interesting for all age levels, so the little ones actually get a lot out of it too. I'm posting a picture of the book that we're doing this year. It's put out by Apologia Science. Obviously, another super thing about this curriculum is that it is creation-based.

Another creation-based tool we found is this audio series. We saved it to listen to on the way to and home from the Aquarium. It gives facts about 100 different aquatic creatures that are proofs against the evolutionary theory. It's very hard to find that kind of science teaching for kids.

Alright. So, we chose the day before Will's birthday to make this trip. It turned out to be about 18 degrees when we got there. The zoo is mostly outside with the Aquarium and the chimp house being indoors along the way. Most of the animals are not fond of these temperatures and weren't out anyway. So we had a frigid walk through an empty zoo to get to the Aquarium.

There is an elevator to take you from the parking lot to the entrance of the zoo. You can see that they look cold and we haven't even entered the zoo yet!

The Aquarium was a huge relief! Exotic jungle landscaping to greet us and a heat wave of indoor heat!!

Now comes your tour of the Aquarium. This Redtail Catfish was enormous. Unfortunately, you can't really tell in the picture. I'm guessing he was about 3 feet long.

These large fish are called Pacu and live in the Amazon River. They weigh around 50 pounds, which is pretty BIG for a river fish!

Bonnethead shark.

Lace Moray Eel.

Puffer fish.

These two zebra sharks seemed to like to swim together.

One thing that you see over and over again is camouflage. It's incredible how many animals can just blend into their surroundings.

The Piranha.

We're not sure, but we think this is some sort of clown fish.

The Lionfish.

A Seahorse.

The boys LOVED the octopus!

An up-close view of the underside. :)

Always sort of magical to watch the jellyfish.

These are forever endeared in our family. Somehow, the penguin has become like a family mascot.

I took a lot of penguin pictures. We also took a short video clip of them. It's so nice to be able to "bring them home."

The next two pictures are of different species of the Leafy Sea Dragon.

Back outside. Here is a very icy fountain.

There are a few animals who brave low temps. This tiger looks entirely unaffected.

I guess peacocks are all-weather birds.

Aw. Back inside. The next few pics are a sampling of the chimps we saw.

A Mandrill.

The elephants actually have an indoor viewing area as well.

Warming our hands in the hand dryers.

Looking down at the parking lot. You can barely see it, but our car is the only one there.

We're really thankful that we live close enough to an Aquarium to go to it. It's so wonderful for the boys to get to see the things they're studying in real life. I, myself, enjoyed it immensely. God's creation is so fascinating to study!